I refer to “Budget 2014: Hospital bed crunch comes under fire”.
In response to WP MP Low Thia Kiang raising the issue of inadequacy of healthcare infrastructure and hospital patients safety, Minister Gan, as usual, offered excuses after excuses, such as:
- elderly patients requiring a longer stay.
- less family support resulting from family size becoming smaller.
- periodic surges in demand.
- sometimes coinciding with outbreaks of diseases like dengue.
Shouldn’t Gan have already known?
On Jan 14, Gan said that “the Government will add 3,700 beds by 2020”. link However, he claims the number is presently 11,000, an increase of 7,300 (300 per cent). link Unless Singapore has developed some new technology in hospital construction, I will assume Gan was confused and the figure of 11,000 increase is wrong. A major hospital like the CGH has 800 beds. By plucking 7,300 additional beds out of the air, Gan would need to construct 9 hospitals.
Two years ago, there was such a severe bed shortage that some operations had to be delayed. link Gan should read the S T daily in order to understand questions raised in Parliament and not confuse nursing homes with acute general hospitals.
Perhaps Gan should not be blamed at all because he has inherited this problem from his predecessors. The ex million dollar health ministers were Khaw Boon Wan (2004 to 2011), Lim Hng Kiang (1999 to 2003) Yeo Cheow Tong (1997 to 1999) and George Yeo (1994 to 1997).
In the 1990s when the population was already growing at 100,000 per year, courtesy of Goh Chok Tong, our highest paid ministers somehow forgot that Singapore citizens are also human beings who may fall sick one day and be admitted to hospital. Collectively, Gan’s predecessors should all be held accountable for the screw up.
If not for Gan’s evasive actions, citizens might be more forgiving and only blame his predecessors for sleeping on the job.
The main reason for this screw up, and all others, is due to our government running our country with a profit motive. Hospital construction is an expense, not revenue, and investments in hospitals are not given the same priority as ERP, mega projects like Gardens by the Bay, Project Jewel, etc. It has always been about trumpeting to the world our politicians’ achievements even at the expense of pressing needs of citizens.
Khaw had all praise for his previous ministry and was very mean to ordinary Singaporeans by introducing means testing. This generates revenue for the government by depriving Singaporeans of the choice of our healthcare needs. That choice happens to be our right.
Our 1/20 foresight government had actually anticipated the ageing population issue and there was even a report by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the Ageing Population in 1999, 15 years ago. link There is no lack of statistics but the government has been selective in their usage ie. pushing for population increase, justify increase in prices, etc. The oversight by the best and brightest in government which resulted in the present hospital bed crunch is shocking.
Chart below – NPTD has already anticipated a huge number of citizens exiting the work force in 2030 and has been aggressively pushing for the 6.9 million target. It is planning 17 years ahead. MOH clearly did not have any long term plans.
Quotes:
CGH CEO: “Our bed occupancy rate has crossed 100 per cent...waited more than 24 hours for an inpatient bed.”
“Those who are not so sick (??) are discharged to make way for the 50 to 60 patients waiting for a bed”, “the current bed crunch as “abnormal” , since public hospitals usually experience a dip in patients during this period. But numbers went up instead”. link
Assoc. Prof Phua Kai Hong said that while the total number of hospital beds has kept pace with population growth, “the growth of the elderly population is not being responded to”.
The hospital bed crunch is so severe that there is really no room for any crisis management. More tents? Where?
Are the additional 3,700 hospital beds sufficient come 2020?
1 Under our current population/immigration policy, the annual population increase is about 80,000. In 6 years time, the population would have increased by 480,000.
2 According to MOH statistics, there were 362,458 admissions in 2012. The elderly made up about 32.5% of total admissions or 118,000. The government has projected there would be 590,000 elderly residents, an increase of about 140,000 from 2014 (31%). (Chart below) In 2020, the number of elderly patients admitted will increase by almost 40,000.
Conclusion
Since Gan has always been offering excuses for the government’s poor planning, one should not expect any solution because he doesn’t seem to comprehend the severity of an existing problem. Gan is also trying to mislead the public with the inclusion of non-hospital bed figures in his parliamentary reply.
The 3,700 additional hospital beds are clearly insufficient for a projected almost half a million increase in population by 2020 and a huge increase in the number of elderly patients
Future hospital bed increase will merely resolve yesteryear’s issues created by Gan’s predecessors.
Phillip Ang
TRS Writer